This is now thirty years or so ago, but I had not seen or heard it before. He really is conducting the NYPO, and being very funny with it, along the way.
Carlos Kleiber was apparently a great admirer...
-
This is now thirty years or so ago, but I had not seen or heard it before. He really is conducting the NYPO, and being very funny with it, along the way.
Carlos Kleiber was apparently a great admirer... -
Originally posted by Prommer View Post
By Jove, he's got it!! Once he gets going, it's the real thing!! With gags!
I've paid to see many worse baton-wielders!
"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
-
-
I could not get tickets for a concert Danny Kaye did with the LSO at the Albert Hall. Apparently he conducted Cimarosa's Il Maestro di Capella with Geraint Evans singing and had an amazingly funny sword/baton fight. He was a special envoy (Ambassador at Large) for UNICEF and the proceeds of his concerts went to them. That was in the days when the USA witheld payments from UNICEF and UNESCO because they did not approve.Comment
-
I've told this before on here but a long time ago. I was at a rehearsal of the LSO, Sargent and Artur Rubinstein, who, I think, was rehearsing Beethoven PC 5. Suddenly there was a shout of "Artur" from the stalls opposite our small group of'students' and a tall figure rushed onto the platform, much to Malcolm's annoyance, and embraced Rubinstein. Apparently they were friends and neighbours in the US. Danny took over the rostrum, Sargent retreated to the side ofthe platform, and Danny went through his paces.
First he conducted the silent orchestra, he did his posh RAF officer routine and fooled about for some time.
By then the orchestra were queueing for Danny's autograph and it was some time before the rehearsal restarted.
I saw Danny Kaye that year at the London Palladium for sheer enjoyment the RAH show was the best.
My friend and I also spoke to Rubinstein, one of my heroes. I think the year was 1948.Comment
-
Mmmmm. Didn't that mix of music and comedy make orchestral music 'accessible' [sic] in a very intelligent way? If only there were a few stars of the calibre of DK with both talents around today
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
-
I'm sorry, but I found Kaye's over the top performances embarrassingly bad - real hide behind the sofa stuff. There were a few nice moments in his films, where the best bits were written by his wife, Sylvia Fine, but all that clowning as a conductor seemed to me to hold good music up for ridicule.
Please! Nobody mention Victor Borge!Comment
-
Funny you should say that Ferret. I loved all the DK films when they came out and still have the videos, but he doesn't seem so funny after all this time. His scat songs with lots of Russian composers' names were clever though.
I fell out a bit with my partner when my birthday surprise was tickets to see Victor Borge. I couldn't laugh at him as everyone else in the theatre seemed to be doing and it cast a cloud on the evening. Oh dear.Comment
-
salymap
You mentioned Victor Borge!
All is forgiven!Comment
-
I'm with FF - Danny Kaye made me cringe as a child and now, while Victor Borge made me laugh then and to this day.
It's all in the wiring, they do say
Comment
-
Originally posted by Ferretfancy View Post
I thought that was precisely what it didn't do. Whereas the BBC's Maestro series, equally enjoyed, no doubt, simply cheapened the music: it was soooooo serious it made those who know nothing about it think celebrities with little or no knowledge of musical theory, unable to read a score, can actually be trained to conduct a symphony orchestra in a few weeks.
On the Kaye video I thought that the audience enjoyed
a) the music played straight at the beginning and
b) the ability of the musicians, as well as DK, to show their technical ability in a different way and cooperate with the comedy (in spite of their posh dress).
It never occurred to me for a moment that either music or musicians were being ridiculed.
I can understand people not thinking DK was funny - or no longer thinking he's funny (ditto V Borge, who we adored in our non-musical family, along with the comedy performances of Harry Secombe): people's sense of humour differs and changes.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
-
Ms Frank holds a Chair in The Public Understanding of Comedy at The University of OxfordOriginally posted by french frank View Post
I thought that was precisely what it didn't do. Whereas the BBC's Maestro series, equally enjoyed, no doubt, simply cheapened the music: it was soooooo serious it made those who know nothing about it think celebrities with little or no knowledge of musical theory, unable to read a score, can actually be trained to conduct a symphony orchestra in a few weeks.
On the Kaye video I thought that the audience enjoyed
a) the music played straight at the beginning and
b) the ability of the musicians, as well as DK, to show their technical ability in a different way and cooperate with the comedy (in spite of their posh dress).
It never occurred to me for a moment that either music or musicians were being ridiculed.
I can understand people not thinking DK was funny - or no longer thinking he's funny (ditto V Borge, who we adored in our non-musical family, along with the comedy performances of Harry Secombe): people's sense of humour differs and changes.
Comment
-
But to be fair, the one that won did have some knowledge of musical theory.Originally posted by french frank View Post
Here we are, discussing it at the time:
It's nice for the BBC to keep the old board archived, but why such a squashed-up format?
(Why has no-one mentioned Eric Morecambe yet?)Comment
-
I believe, or read somewhere that DK had a lot of musician friends [apart from Artur] and often attended concerts. He was a very versatile and clever man and is to be commended for his charity work in later life.
It's just the films that I probably saw too many times, although I still love 'The Court Jester' with a wonderful cast and the unforgettable 'The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon, the chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true'. We drove our boss dotty at the music hire library with whispering that to each other. He thought we were talking about him and we were silly teenagers at the time.
Comment
Comment